Kato Zakros is a very important archaeological site and it is located 44 kilometers south of Sitia, on the east coast of Crete. It is considered to have been one of the four most important administrative centers of the Minoans. Its strategic location and natural harbor made it a trade center for the Eastern Mediterranean. The city was built around 1900 BC, rebuilt in 1600 and destroyed in 1450 BC, like the rest of the cities of the Minoan civilization, with the powerful eruption of the Santorini volcano.
The first excavations were carried out at Zakros in 1901 by the British School of Archeology led by D. G. Hoghard. The excavation revealed twelve houses and two depositories (places where sacred objects were placed). In 1961, two pieces of gold jewelry from the Minoan period given as a gift to a local doctor caused new excavations to begin in the area. Nikolaos Platon discovered the Palace of Zakros, the fourth largest palace in Minoan Crete.
The palace followed the architectural structure of the other Minoan palaces. There was a central courtyard, where religious ceremonies took place. Around the courtyard majestic buildings with columns, royal apartments and bathing facilities, altars, places of worship, workshops, living rooms, kitchens and purification tanks were arrayed. There was a stonecutter's workshop, storehouses, a treasury, the only unassailable one from the Minoan period and an archive, where clay tablets, with inscriptions in Linear A, were found. A labyrinth, similar to that of Knossos and Phaistos, was, also, discovered.
The city surrounded the palace. There were large blocks of flats with two or four, two to three-story houses. There was a complex road network with cobbled streets. The city was built at the exit of the canyon of the Dead where many Minoan tombs were found.
Art of high artistic and aesthetic value were found in the palace, such as, ritual vessels, the famous ryto (vessel) in the shape of a bull's head, cups, chalices, amphorae made of rare materials, such as faience, ivory, obsidian, alabaster and marble. Tools, semi-processed materials, cooking utensils, sacrificial vessels, and a bowl of olives that retained their flesh after 3,500 years were also found. Many of the finds are exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion and some in the Museums of Sitia and Agios Nikolaos. 12,000 vessels, 1,100 boxes of ceramics and thousands of small objects await to be evaluated and cataloged.
The site is worth the visit and the visiting hours for the public are, in the summer, from 8:30 to 18:30 daily, except on August 15th, when it is closed, and the tickets cost 6€ each.
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